The IBJJF have just announced a fantastic featherweight division for The Crown 2024, and all eight of these elite grapplers will meet on the mats on November 17th, 2024. The inaugural edition of The Crown featured just four competitors in each weight class but the promotion made a huge decision this year to double the size of every bracket to 8. The featherweight division is the first to be fully announced and there’s one aspect of the lineup that makes this bracket particularly interesting. Samuel Nagai is the reigning champion after winning the four-man bracket in 2023 and not only is he absent, but so is the silver medalist Isaac Doederlein.
There is one man returning from the podium last year though, as Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira moved up from his usual home at light-featherweight to take home a bronze medal. He will be looking to improve upon that result this time around, especially after he won the IBJJF World Championship in his regular weight class again earlier this year. Although the featherweight world champion is missing, the bracket does include this year’s silver medalist from that weight class; Ademir Barreto. They aren’t the only competitors in the featherweight division of The Crown who have had big success on the IBJJF circuit this year either, as Kennedy Maciel won all of the other three majors at this weight.
One of the other top contenders in the bracket is actually another IBJJF World Championship winner, as Shane Hill-Taylor won his title back in 2018. The promotion has invited yet another veteran grappler who will be incredibly tough for anyone to beat too, Ares BJJ founder and four-time IBJJF No Gi World Championship winner Osvaldo ‘Queixinho’ Moizinho. Although these might be some of the favorites on paper, the other three competitors rounding out the bracket are also incredibly talented grapplers. Joao Mendes in particular has been competing at the highest level of the sport for 6 years at this point.
The final two grapplers are a little less established at the black belt level, but both of them are very promising prospects who look like they might be destined for big things. Both Marco Mendes and Eduardo Granzotto have won the IBJJF World Championship at the colored belt levels during their rise through the ranks, and both of them have already racked up some impressive wins. Mendes received his black belt half way through 2022 and Granzotto half way through 2023, so it’ll be very interesting to see what they’re both able to do as underdogs in a bracket stacked with some of the best in the world.
The IBJJF announced the full featherweight division for The Crown in a recent post to their official Instagram account: